Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Go Forth Into Fear

I was reminded of this topic not long ago. While I had been thinking that something I was about ready to embark upon made my knees knock, I was forgetting that there was another side to this. One friend pointed out to me that even when I was afraid, I was willing to go into my fears.

Go forth into fear is something that I often forget I do. Yet, as my friend pointed out, even if I'm afraid, I still go into the fear. Its easy to chastise myself for not doing enough or not being enough, but in all reality, I am often more than I think I am.

In all reality, I'm pretty hard on myself at times. Even though I've done a lot of work on this and come a long ways, I still don't always give myself a break. I demand perfection of everything I do. Its exhausting at times and robs me of so much in life.

As I think about going forth into fear, I'm taken back to so many events of my life. Feeling like there was no ounce of energy left or having complete confusion about what the next step was. Sometimes going into the fears meant dealing with anger, sadness, pain and many other emotions.

You're in good company though because most people don't go into their fears. They avoid them and hide from them. They twist them into beliefs and procedures and processes. They sell them as advertisement and report them as news. They preach them and they get others to buy into their philosophies.

Go forth into fear requires that we grab tightly on to our courage and take a step. Maybe we don't know what the step is, but we lift our foot up and place it in front of us. It means we just do it, rather than rationalizing how much we don't want to do it or are afraid to do it. The rest will sort itself out as we go.

Go forth into fear requires us to not hide from reality, but embrace that point of what we do not know. It requires us to learn how to be true to ourselves, and not give up because the going gets tough. It requires us to shed all that we think is true so that we can inquire about that which we do not know.

Go forth into fear requires us to begin learning how to love and accept ourselves as we are, not as we think we have to be for anyone or for ourselves. It is a moment where we decide to get to know our innermost depths and take the journey into greater growth and peace and joy for our lives.